Gen’s ouster won’t be disaster: Benazir

“A return to democracy is not just important for Pakistanis, it is important for the entire world. Yet, Musharraf and his regime are promoting the perception that he is the only bulwark between the West and nuclear-armed fundamentalists. By this self-serving logic, Musharraf’s fall would be disastrous to success in the war on terror. Nothing could be further from the truth,” argues Benazir, the chief of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

She stresses that no Pakistani, except those on the fringe, disagrees with the movement to rid Pakistan of terrorism. The truth remains that more than two-thirds of Pakistanis are distinctly moderate and see the tide of extremism currently rippling out from tribal Pakistan as a danger to its self-image and stability.

The solution to stabilising this anarchic state cannot be “stabilising the current regime” when the regime itself relies on fanning flames of religious and ethnic terrorism to justify its undemocratic hold on power, she said.

She holds Musharraf responsible for the resurgence of the Taliban. She also feels that Osama bin Laden has not been caught because once that happens, the international cries for restoration of democracy will only deepen. Musharraf’s regime needs the threat of an “Islamist takeover” to keep the rest of the world community supportive of its continued grip over Pakistan. Anti-dictatorship sentiment in Pakistan today has reached a fever pitch, she writes.

“At its core, Pakistan aspires to be a democratic nation. The public longs for a return to democracy through the establishment of a cohesive national government that can oversee election reforms to ensure free elections open to all political personalities, including the

exiled prime ministers, observed by a robust international monitoring team under laws that ensure rigging cannot take place.”